Boynton Beach

At the Morikami Japanese Gardens near Boynton Beach, Florida. We met our relatives for lunch and a walk in the gardens.

The landscaping is very beautiful. We walked with Katie, who was visiting
Jean and Jack. Katie lives in Toronto.

Katie, Jean, Jack, and Lenny at the gardens.

Jack.

On our second day visiting Boynton Beach we did some birdwatching at Green Key Wetlands and Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, two beautiful places we've been before. It was new to Katie!

A grebe.

Baby alligators in the swampy water.

An American bittern. These are usually shy, but this individual was out in the open.

We will be spending a few more days in Florida, then home. I have more material about our trip to Peru last week, and I'll work on it when we get back. I've now read two interesting books about the Amazon River, and I'll combine some ideas from the books with the photos that I still want to post.

Dining on the Delfin 2

Our Amazon river boat, the Delfin 2, offered beautiful and delicious meals. Breakfast was a buffet, and lunch and dinner were served at magnificently decorated tables. The kitchen was open, and we watched as they plated each of our three courses at every meal. I was always aware of the extreme contrast between our situation and the lives of the villages whose homes we were passing, but there wasn't anything I could do about this condition of modern global life.

After dinner on a few evenings, the staff played wonderful Peruvian music to our great amusement.
Paddington Bear accompanied me back to darkest Peru for one of these evenings.

The chef gave a demo of how to make Peruvian ceviche.

On another afternoon we heard a lecture on wild fruits that grow in the
jungle. Above: a selection of palm fruits.

A beautiful tablescape. At each meal we enjoyed a different setting, with a variety of shapes of plates and colorful
placemats and table napkins. Some settings included colorful raffia creatures made by local villagers.

The Flooded Forest

Our river trip started and ended in the town of Nauta, Peru, on the Marañón River. We motored up the Marañón, downstream to the confluence of the Marañón and Ucayali rivers, which join to form the Amazon, and then up the Ucayli River and back. February is near the beginning of high water season, so the rising river has no banks, but water flows under the trees and into the forests. The water is often still and very black so that the forest in mirrored in the water. The forest is full of creatures: monkeys like the one above, birds, sloths, iguanas, and others we didn't see like jaguars and tapirs.

Trees and wildlife have adapted to living in water, and many villages are on stilts to avoid having their homes flooded. In places, the river widens into large lagoons. Some are choked with water lettuce and water hyacinths. In trying to take photos, I felt as if I tried to capture an illusion.

A ruddy pigeon perching in the trees.

We saw a few giant lily pads. When the water gets too high, they are submerged, so it's the end of the season for them.

Two nighthawks roosting in a tree in a lagoon -- we saw them fly on our night boat ride.

A drowned forest, where trees didn't survive some very high water a
few years ago. On the center trunk are fishing bats.

Two bats.

The waters are a source of a large variety of fish, eaten by people, by the
elusive pink dolphins (which we didn't manage to photograph), and by
many species of birds.

Jungle Creatures

In the Amazon basin last week, we traveled on a luxurious river boat called the Delfin 2. We took daily trips on skiffs to see the forest and the tributaries of the river, looking for interesting creatures and enjoying the views of the flooded forests.  I'll be writing more about the boat, the activities, and the forests, the birds we saw, and more now that I am back in the US.

Amazon birds, which we were very eager to see, are colorful and exciting, but the forest is also full of other creatures. Here are a few creatures and one or two birds --

A tarantula, which a native guide found while we were hiking in
the forest. All our other trips were by boat because most of the trails
are underwater now, in the high-water season.

A tortoise on the forest floor.

This bird, the jacana, walks on the water lettuce that covers the surface of the water. This male jacana is sitting on
a nest. The female lays the eggs and leaves them to the male. She may even make another nest with another male. 

One of many sloths that we saw hanging in the trees.

We saw many of these beautiful birds called yellow-rumped caciques. They nest
all along the river banks, and we saw them on every skiff ride.

We often saw iguanas sitting on tree branches.

A family group of night monkeys. We saw quite a few other monkeys as well.

Just after dark, our guide pulled this young caiman out of the water.
When grown he might be 9 feet long. 

A young boy held up an unusual fish to show us as our skiff went past his
house, which stands on stilts in the water. The villagers live on fish that
they catch -- a wide variety of species that are unfamiliar to us.

The village on stilts in the forest.

Hello, World!

We just finished 7 days on the upper Amazon River -- actually on several of the numerous rivers that feed the Amazon. Two thousand miles from the mouth of the river these tributaries are enormous, and the forests are all flooded because it's the rainy season. I hope to post more photos and memories from this amazing trip, but meanwhile here are some photos of the local people. I've been totally out of contact with the rest of the world as there's no internet or cell phone coverage.

The little girl above lives in a village along the river, and showed us her pet -- a baby paca. It will grow to be a large one, though they are prized for meat by the villagers, so who knows what its fate may be.

Sunset at another village.

Carola, a shaman, gave a talk to the passengers on the boat. Here she is
rubbing hair-growing potion into our fellow passenger Jj's head.

And now for some birds -- the following photos are among Len's favorites. We saw many more!

A lesser yellow-headed vulture in flight. 

This very unusual looking bird is called the Hoatzin.

A collared puff bird.

Green and yellow macaws.

A paradise tanager.

A ringed kingfisher.